The rule to making your own game is that there are no rules | Hacker News Reader

The rule to making your own game is that there are no rules

text.npr.org

69 pointsmooreds15 comments

This makes me think of tabletop games, where so many games, even ones supposedly made to fit a certain genre, are so obviously derived from a Dungeons & Dragons perspective that it's clear the writer hasn't ever even considered a different kind of game.

One such category is games with elaborate money-tracking systems... that are based on properties that rarely if ever care about money. Most Star Wars tabletop RPGs fall into this group.

I would say this is much less true today than it used to be (I remember this being a huge issue in the early 00s). Today's table top RPG creators are generally well aware that DnD's system is not a good for for many genres. A lot of games today are based on generic systems, each with its own flavour, like FATE, PbtA or Genesys. And some big "indie" companies like Chaosium (of Call of Cthulhu fame) and the Free League use their own systems which they adapt slightly to new games.

Edit: As for Star Wars games I have heard good things about FFG's games but I have never played them myself. Those games are the origin of the generic Genesys system.

FFG Star Wars is actually one of the ones I was specifically thinking about there. It does well in other ways, but it's still deeply locked into the D&D pattern of it being vital to accumulate money and stuff, leading to absurdities like Jedi padawans not having a lightsaber because by the rules they can't afford it.

Oh. You mean anarchism?

Yep. That's why we need to learn about anarchism: to practice designing and playing different societal games from the norm.

That's what communes were historically used for. Examples include the Paris commune, and Josiah Warren's various experiments [1]. I also just discovered this wiki article while trying to remember another example (it was Freetown Christiania), which is pretty cool: [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Warren#Cincinnati_and_U...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anarchist_communities

I'm wanting to add one to the second link, tentatively called THE NORTH POLE or maybe by a name that lists every core value and building of the community in the name so people can know exactly what they're getting into from just the name.

I thought this article might be about (and think it should've been about) games like:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_(card_game)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game)

...but especially Nomic, which has apparently been played online since the 1990s.

> Nomic

I encourage everyone to play a round of Dvorak[0] at least once. I fondly remember losing my first game shortly after a rule was created that barred me, personally, from speaking. The subterfuge is palpable.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_(game)

Nomic is partial inspiration for the design-your-own-religion religion I've defined as Iggnnominism. I consider myself to be a monastic practitioner, an Iggnnomic abbottess (gender-neutral monastic steward of a temple or temples).

It's basically acknowledging life as a Nomic and everyone's got their own version going.

Calvinball!

The score is still Q to 12!

Came here to say that. Upvoted.

The obvious has been stated. Nothing to see here.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com